Today we’re conquering our fears and making homemade croissants! If you’re about to run away screaming, I understand. I’m not sugarcoating it: croissants aren’t easy. Croissants require time, patience, and a lot of rolling. However, just because this recipe is advanced doesn’t mean that YOU have to be an advanced baker to try it. You can absolutely handle this quintessential baking bucket list recipe. ♥
Let me hold your hand through the whole process. I’m sharing step-by-step photography, a full video tutorial, plenty of tricks based on what I’ve learned, and the croissant recipe. I started working on croissants earlier this year. I studied a couple recipes, tested them, tweaked what I found necessary, and played with this dough for weeks. The croissants are golden brown, extra flaky, crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and unbelievable warm from the oven. One bite of this delicate French pastry will immediately transport you to a quaint French bakery. I’m confident in this homemade croissants recipe and I’m confident in YOU baking them.
The good news! You need zero fancy equipment and zero special ingredients. If you’re looking for a weekend project, know how to read directions, and crave a fresh homemade pastry (don’t we all?), then stick around. You’ll be rewarded with the BEST treat ever!!!
Let’s get right into it. Making croissants is a labor of love. The long recipe directions and all these step-by-step photographs seem intimidating, but let me walk you through the basic process so you aren’t nervous.
The Process
- make easy dough from butter, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk
- roll out dough into a large rectangle
- make the butter layer (I have an easy trick for this!!!)
- enclose the butter layer inside the dough
- roll out the dough into another large rectangle, then fold it back together
- roll out the dough again, fold it back together again
- roll out the dough one more time, fold it back together
- shape the croissants
- bake
There’s resting time between most steps, which means most of the time is hands off. To help us develop all the layers, croissant dough needs to rest in the refrigerator often. That’s why I call making croissants a project. Do it over a couple days with long breaks between the steps.
All that rolling out and folding back together? That’s called LAMINATING.
What is Laminated Dough?
Laminating dough is the process of folding butter into dough many times, which creates multiple alternating layers of butter and dough. When the laminated dough bakes, the butter melts and creates steam. This steam lifts the layers apart, leaving us with dozens of flaky airy buttery layers.
Just like we do when we make a croissant bread loaf, We’re going to laminate the dough 3 times, which will create 81 layers in our croissants. Yes, 81! Let me paint that picture for you.
- Start with dough, butter layer, dough = 3 layers
- Roll it out and fold it into thirds = 9 layers
- Roll that out and fold it into thirds = 27 layers
- Roll that out one last time and fold it into thirds = 81 layers
So we’re only laminating the dough 3 times, but that gives us 81 layers. When the croissants are rolled up and shaped, that’s one 81 layer dough rolled up many times. So when you bite into a croissant, you’re literally biting into hundreds of layers.
Isn’t that SO COOL???
Croissants Video Tutorial
Watch me make croissants in this video. I talk you through the whole video too.
Now let’s see everything come together in step-by-step photographs.
DOUGH
Croissant dough begins with butter, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk. Unlike most yeasted doughs that require warm liquid to activate the yeast, you’re going to use cold milk. The yeast will work its magic later on in the recipe. In the beginning steps of croissants, the dough should always be cold. If, at any point, the dough becomes too warm… stop. Stop what you’re doing and place the dough back in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
The mixer will beat the dough for about 5 minutes. Stand by your mixer as it works the dough. This dough isn’t particularly heavy, but your mixer will still get a workout. Did you see my Instagram story when my mixer FELL OFF MY COUNTER? I walked away at the wrong time and the whole thing danced off the counter. Unplugged itself and everything. Don’t make my mistake!
We made the dough, now we’re going to cover it and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Now let’s roll out the dough into a 14×10-inch rectangle. Use a clean ruler or measuring tape. The ruler or measuring tape, besides your rolling pin, is the most crucial tool when making croissants.
I recommend using a silicone baking mat. While we will still lightly flour it, the mat is nonstick and it’s a handy guide for the exact measurement. You also need to transfer the dough to a baking sheet and the silicone baking mat makes that possible.
The dough isn’t extremely cold after only 30 minutes in the refrigerator, so it will be easy to roll out. Be precise with the 14×10-inch measurement. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working the edges with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. You can see how I do all this in the video below.
Cover the rolled out dough and chill it for 4 hours or overnight. Literally pick up the silicone baking mat, put it on top of your baking sheet, cover the dough, and chill it. I usually chill it for 4 hours because there is one more 4 hour or overnight chill period coming up. That’s when I typically chill it overnight, making this a 2 day recipe.
BUTTER
Many croissant recipes instruct you to shape extremely cold butter into a rectangle or square. Have you ever tried to manipulate cold sticks of butter into another shape? It’s really hard. I learned the following trick from Zoe at Zoe Bakes. Please go follow Zoe, she is the absolute best. ♥
Start with softened butter, beat it with flour so it has some stability, then spread into a rectangle and chill it. It’s 100x easier to shape softened butter than it is to shape cold butter. Thank you Zoe!
You can use any butter you like best. If you’re going to spend money on European style butter, croissants are when to do it. If I’m being honest, I use store-brand butter and love the croissant’s flavor. It’s butter. It’s going to be good regardless.
The butter rectangle is 7×10 inches, half the length of the dough and the same width, so it fits into the dough. We will chill the butter rectangle right on the silicone baking mat. After it’s chilled, we can peel it right off and place it on the dough to begin lamination.
Make sure you only chill the butter for about 30 minutes. Our goal is to have the croissant dough and butter be the same temperature. It makes lamination possible. Butter solidifies much quicker than a soft dough, so that’s why our dough will chill for 4 hours and our butter will only chill for 30 minutes. Make sense?
Because you shaped the butter into the precise 7×10-inch size, it fits nicely on the 14×10-inch dough. (After the butter rectangle chills, you can always cut sharp edges with a pizza cutter or knife to make it the appropriate size.)
Fold the cold dough over the cold butter. Use your fingers to seal the butter inside.
Now we’re going to laminate the dough 3x with a 30 minute break between the 2nd and 3rd time. Why between the 2nd and 3rd time? Because our dough has been out of the refrigerator for long enough by this point and needs to be chilled again. 30 minutes is plenty.
I do not have step-by-step pictures of the lamination process because it’s time sensitive and the dough just became too warm as I tried to set up the shot. However, you can see me laminate the dough and talk through the process in the video below. (3:20-5:15 minutes) Watching me work through this step is more helpful anyway.
Our dough has been rolled out and folded 3x, now it’s time to rest.
Cover the laminated dough and chill it for 4 hours or overnight. This is when I usually chill it overnight.
Roll out the dough 1 more time. This time you’ll roll it into an 8×20-inch rectangle.
Use your pizza cutter and slice the rectangle down the center to create two 4×20 rectangles. Then slice across 3x to create eight 4×5-inch rectangles.
Look at all these layers!!!!
Now slice each of the 8 rectangles into 2 triangles. Using your fingers or a rolling pin, stretch the triangles to be about 8 inches long. Do this gently as you do not want to flatten the layers. Cut a small slit at the wide end of the triangle, then tightly roll up into a crescent shape making sure the tip is underneath.
Loosely cover the shaped croissants and allow to rest at room temperature (I suggest just keeping them on the counter) for 1 hour, then place in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour. Unlike a lot of croissant recipes, I prefer the shaped croissants to be cold going into the oven. They won’t spread as much. They will rise and proof for the 1 hour at room temperature and continue to do so in the refrigerator for another hour.
The croissants are ready to bake after that! FINALLY.
Brush them with egg wash (egg + milk).
Bake.
Indulge. Because after making the dough and rolling it out a million times, you completely deserve to. Enjoy them plain or with jam or homemade raspberry sauce. Interested in chocolate croissants? Of course you are!
If you happen to have any leftovers, day old croissants are perfect so soak up flavors in an easy breakfast casserole.
FAQ: Why Are There Are Chunks of Butter in my Dough & Why Did Butter Leak Out of the Croissants?
These are 2 common questions and I’m happy to sum it all up for you. Some butter leakage during the baking process is normal and expected, however if your baking croissants are sitting on pools of butter, your butter layer may have been too cold. It would make sense to give the best temperature for the butter layer, but you’re really looking for texture. You want the dough and sheet of butter to be similar in softness. If the butter layer is too hard, it will crack and split under the dough. Let it sit at room temperature to soften before the laminating process (step 7) OR reduce the chill time in step 6 down from 30 minutes to about 15.
See Your Croissants!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
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How to Make Croissants
- Prep Time: 12 hours, 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 13 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: 16 croissants
- Category: Pastries
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Description
Buttery, flaky, and perfect homemade croissants!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons; 60g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for rolling/shaping
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon active dry or instant yeast
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) cold whole milk
Butter Layer
- 1 and 1/2 cups (3 sticks; 345g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons (16g) all-purpose flour
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) whole milk
Instructions
- Preliminary notes: Watch the video below and use the step-by-step photos before you begin. Read the recipe before beginning. Make room in the refrigerator for a baking sheet. In step 6 and again in step 13, you will need room for 2 baking sheets.
- Make the dough: Cut the butter in four 1-Tablespoon pieces and place in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment (or you can use a handheld mixer or no mixer, but a stand mixer is ideal). Add the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Turn the mixer on low-medium speed to gently combine the ingredients for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the milk. Once all of the milk is added, turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat the dough for at least 5 full minutes. (If you don’t have a mixer, knead by hand for 5 minutes.) The dough will be soft. It will (mostly) pull away from the sides of the bowl and if you poke it with your finger, it will bounce back. If after 5 minutes the dough is too sticky, keep the mixer running until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Remove dough from the bowl and, with floured hands, work it into a ball. Place the dough on a lightly floured silicone baking mat lined, lightly floured parchment paper lined, or lightly floured baking sheet. (I highly recommend a silicone baking mat because you can roll the dough out in the next step directly on top and it won’t slide all over the counter.) Gently flatten the dough out, as I do in the video below, and cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and allow the covered dough to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Shape the dough: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. I like to keep the dough on the silicone baking mat when I’m rolling it in this step because the mat is nonstick and it’s a handy guide for the exact measurement. Begin flattening out the dough with your hands. You’re rolling it out into a rectangle in this step, so shaping it with your hands first helps the stretchy dough. Roll it into a 14×10-inch rectangle. The dough isn’t extremely cold after only 30 minutes in the refrigerator, so it will feel more like soft play-doh. Be precise with the measurement. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working the edges with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle.
- Long rest: Place the rolled out dough back onto the baking sheet (this is why I prefer a silicone baking mat or parchment because you can easily transfer the dough). Cover the rolled out dough with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and allow the covered dough to rest in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. (Up to 24 hours is ok.)
- Butter layer (begin this 35 minutes before the next step so the butter can chill for 30 minutes): In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and flour together until smooth and combined. Transfer the mixture to a silicone baking mat lined or parchment paper lined baking sheet. (Silicone baking mat is preferred because you can easily peel the butter off in the next step.) Using a spoon or small spatula, smooth out into a 7×10-inch rectangle. Be as precise as you can with this measurement. Place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill the butter layer for 30 minutes. (No need to cover it for only 30 minutes.) You want the butter layer firm, but still pliable. If it gets too firm, let it sit out on the counter for a few minutes to gently soften. The more firm the butter layer is the more difficult it will be to laminate the dough in the next step.
- Laminate the dough: In this next step, you will be rolling out the dough into a large rectangle. Do this on a lightly floured counter instead of rolling out on your silicone baking mat. The counter is typically a little cooler (great for keeping the dough cold) and the silicone baking mat is smaller than the measurement you need. Remove both the dough and butter layers from the refrigerator. Place the butter layer in the center of the dough and fold each end of the dough over it. If the butter wasn’t an exact 7×10-inch rectangle, use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to even out the edges. Seal the dough edges over the butter layer as best you can with your fingers. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough into a 10×20-inch rectangle. It’s best to roll back and forth with the shorter end of the dough facing you, like I do in the video below. Use your fingers if you need to. The dough is very cold, so it will take a lot of arm muscle to roll. Again, the dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working it with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. This was the 1st turn.
- If the dough is now too warm to work with, place folded dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before the 2nd turn. I usually don’t have to.
- 2nd turn: Turn the dough so the short end is facing you. Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle, then fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter. The dough must be refrigerated between the 2nd and 3rd turn because it has been worked with a lot by this point. Place the folded dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before the 3rd turn.
- 3rd turn: Roll the dough out once again into a 10×20-inch rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds as if you were folding a letter.
- Long rest: Place the folded dough on the lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (Up to 24 hours is ok.)
- At the end of the next step, you’ll need 2 baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. The dough is currently on a lined baking sheet in the refrigerator, so you already have 1 prepared!
- Shape the croissants: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough out into an 8×20-inch rectangle. Use your fingers if you need to. Once again, the dough is very cold, so it will take a lot of arm muscle to roll. The dough will want to be oval shaped, but keep working it with your hands and rolling pin until you have the correct size rectangle. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, slice the dough in half vertically. Each skinny rectangle will be 4-inches wide. Then cut 3 even slices horizontally, yielding 8 4×5-inch rectangles. See photo above for a visual. Cut each rectangle diagonally to make 2 triangles. You have 16 triangles now. Work with one triangle at a time. Using your fingers or a rolling pin, stretch the triangle to be about 8 inches long. Do this gently as you do not want to flatten the layers. Cut a small slit at the wide end of the triangle, then tightly roll up into a crescent shape making sure the tip is underneath. Slightly bend the ends in towards each other. Repeat with remaining dough, placing the shaped croissants on 2 lined baking sheets, 8 per sheet. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and allow to rest at room temperature (no warmer– I suggest keeping on the counter) for 1 hour, then place in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour or up to 12 hours. (Or freeze, see freezing instructions.) I prefer the shaped croissants to be cold going into the oven.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Egg wash: Whisk the egg wash ingredients together. Remove the croissants from the refrigerator. Brush each lightly with egg wash.
- Bake the croissants: Bake until croissants are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. If croissants show signs of darkening too quickly, reduce the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Remove croissants from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before serving. They will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Croissants taste best the same day they’re baked. Cover any leftover croissants and store at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can also freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm up to your liking.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Croissants are perfect for getting started ahead of time. The dough can rest for 4 hours or overnight in step 5 and again in step 11. You can also freeze the dough after the 3rd turn in the lamination process (after step 10). Instead of the 4 hour rest in the refrigerator in step 11, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, place in a freezer zipped-top bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and continue with step 12. You can also freeze the shaped croissants after they rest for 1 hour at room temperature in step 13. (Before placing in the refrigerator.) Cover them tightly and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw completely in the refrigerator, then bake as directed.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): KitchenAid Stand Mixer | Rolling Pin | Pizza Cutter | Pastry Brush | Silpat Baking Mat | Baking Sheet
- Yeast: I use and recommend Red Star Platinum, an instant yeast. You can use active dry yeast instead if needed. No changes to the recipe or prior proofing required; just mix it in as instructed. (Most modern yeasts are already active!) Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Keep Dough Cold: Make sure the dough is ALWAYS cold. If it warms up too much, stop what you’re doing and place the dough back in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Floured Surface: Lightly flour the work surface, your hands, the dough, and the rolling pin as you work.
- Air Bubbles: Are there air bubbles in your dough as you roll? That’s ok. Pop them with your fingers or a toothpick, then lightly flour where you popped the air bubble.
- Croissants for Brunch: I recommend starting the recipe the day before in the early afternoon. Complete steps 1-10, then let the laminated dough have a long rest in the refrigerator overnight (step 11). Begin step 13 2-3 hours before brunch.
- Dough adapted from Joy of Baking, Fine Cooking, and Epicurious
Keywords: croissants, homemade croissants
Tried it for the first time and followed every step . Amazing !!!!! Thank you so much .
★★★★★
Mine came out great. I trimmed the folded edges off the last rectangle, before cutting my pieces, to ensure maximum rise and I have to totally second your cold proofing recommendation. I tried a few without cold-proofing and they didn’t have quite as much rise and seeped just a bit of their butter. Well done! Thank you for this recipe. My kids have requested I fill them with ham and gruyere next time….
Followed to the T except put a little more salt/sugar..croissants came out delicious, resonably flaky honestly didn’t need much topping with them so mouthful.
Only issue was too much butter. I put them to bake after 11 hours in freezer…straight in. There were puddles of butter under each which at end I gently pasted on top for shiny look. Everyone loved them but did say could have been less butter. Sally any suggestions?
★★★★
Hi Arun! I’m glad you tried and loved them. Feel free to reduce the amount of butter if you decide to try them again.
I have always wanted to try croissants but man they are daunting! Sally’s video made these actually look do-able! We have made them twice and they have come out great each time! We even added the chocolate this time and they were perfect. Thanks for this recipe and making croissants less intimidating!
★★★★★
I used European butter for the recipe. European butter has more fat content so it was necessary to add more flour so the dough was not sticky. When the croissants were ready to bake, the dough was thick but the butter was lumpy (looked like cellulite). The croissants cooked perfectly but the butter did run out of the dough. They tasted good but next time I would use salted butter or add more salt.
★★★★
The instructions (videos, pictures, and written) are spot on. I nailed it. My wife told me that the chocolate croissants are unbelievably good. My son wants to eat all of them. My previous baking experience is 1x banana bread (my son told me it is better than his mom’s) and numerous lasagnes. Thanks for the website. Thumbs way up!
★★★★★
Loved these! My family went nuts over them. Thank you for sharing this recipe and for the step by step instructions and video; they were very helpful! I knew I wasn’t going to have time in the morning to let the unshaped dough rest overnight so I follow the steps up to step 13 but instead of proofing them for an hour I only did it for 40 min. I then covered the shaped croissants and put them in the fridge overnight then I took them out an hour before baking. Delicious!
★★★★★
ANy suggestions on making these with a cinnamon sugar butter instead of regular butter? Looking to spice the up a bit…pun intended 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Sally,
I originally made these with all purpose flour and they were absolutely wonderful..the layers . I am trying different flours but wanted to see if whole wheat kings Arthur flour would work on these before I spent another two days working on the delicious creatures.
Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Ashley! For best taste and texture, I recommend sticking with all-purpose flour. I do not recommend whole wheat flour.
Hi Sally,
If I do not have a Silpat mat, can I still bake these? Or am I likely to end up with burnt bases?
Should i try with parchment lined tray or maybe place the croissants within a baking tin?
Thank you
Hi SK, Yes, we recommend baking the croissants on parchment paper if you do not have a silicone baking mat. Enjoy!
These turned out amazing when I baked them fresh! I just tried baking a couple that I froze (I put them in the freezer after shaping them), but they didn’t rise nearly as much as the fresh ones. I made sure they thawed overnight in the fridge and put them in the oven cold. Any other tips for the next time that might help them rise? Or is this expected for ones that have been frozen? Thanks!
★★★★★
Thank you for this recipe!! I have tried making croissants SO many times and failed, so I didn’t follow the instructions very well and STILL ended up with great croissants for the first time. Definitely using this recipe again!
I can’t believe I actually made croissants! Would definitely call this a ‘project’, but the thorough instructions, photos, and video made this recipe pretty much foolproof. I can’t wait to try again and perfect my technique! Thank you, Sally!
★★★★★
Had so much fun making these! My only issue was that my dough was way too sticky. It was quite tricky shaping the dough as it kept sticking to my baking mat & counter. I had to re-piece my dough back together a few times BUT they still turned out amazing!!! Do not be discouraged with this recipe! Definitely watch the video a couple times and read through instructions. It looks daunting, but really isn’t that bad.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for this recipe! The photos and video made everything so much easier. I had problems with butter leaking during lamination and while I was stretching the triangles, so I expected to have big problems with butter leaking out during cooking but they turned out great! The only thing is that they don’t really taste of much at all, just plain cooked dough. I’m not sure if perhaps I need to use more sugar or maybe salted butter?
Hi Rachel, if you find that the butter is leaking as you work on the lamination steps, stop what you’re doing and chill the dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator, then return to it. This amount of time helps solidify the butter. Salted butter will certainly add flavor and feel free to add another 2-3 Tablespoons of sugar to the dough.
I love it! My croissants came out beautiful
★★★★★
Perfect croissants and my first time making them at home. Great video tutorial. It helped a lot in the process. Appreciate your attention to detail in the instructions too. My wife loved them.
★★★★★
Hi Sally- I want to make this for my family on Saturday, but I don’t have whole milk and I don’t have time to go and buy it, so would it work if I used regular milk.
Thanks,
Buthaina
★★★★★
A lower fat milk is fine in a pinch but the dough will not be as rich.
Hi Sally- when cooking croissants from frozen, how long does it wake to thaw in the fridge? Have you ever tried to let them thaw at room temp overnight before baking?
Also, Your butter trick is amazing!! I’ve made croissants before and pounding the butter with the dough is such a pain!
Hi Shauna! It takes several hours for them to thaw. You can let them thaw at room temperature, but it’s best if they are cold going into the oven.
If you thaw them on the counter overnight they will begin to proof once they thaw. If you allow them to proof for hours they will lose their shape and the dough will get chewy – not flaky.
The one flaw with this recipe is that the edges of the final fold are too broad/loose. If you trim them off after the 2nd chill, before cutting the triangles, then your croissants will be that little bit more perfect.
You can use the trimmings to make yourself a nice little plate of gnocchi. Just mix in some mashed root veg (butternut squash is my fave), rest in the fridge for half an hour, then roll to finger-width, lightly flour it, then cut into bite-sized pieces by pressing the tangs of a fork into the roll at an angle to cut it and leave the traditional parallel lines on the surface.
★★★★
These turned out beautifully with a few stumbles along the way. My dough never pulled away from the mixing bowl completely, and the butter caused some lumps in the dough. But I stuck it out and ended up with perfectly flaky buttery croissants from scratch! Very impressive for a novice baker like myself. My French husband is enjoying them fresh out of the oven right now with one minor critique, that they lack salt. Next time I will try this recipe with salted butter.
★★★★★
Hi there! I enjoyed the process of making these croissants! I didn’t have a stand mixer so I made the dough by hand, but the lamination and folding went perfectly! When I cute the dough into triangles, I could see the distinct layers like in your photos. My concern is that when I baked the croissants, tons of butter spilled out and puddled. I don’t know if my oven was not hot enough? I allowed the croissants to sit on the counter for 1 hour and then in the fridge overnight before baking! The final product was good, but super doughy in the middle and almost fried on the bottom (from the pools of butter).
Thank you!
Hi Sarah! This can definitely happen and while the croissants still taste fine, it can be disappointing. I’m happy to help you for next time though. It sounds like the butter was simply too hard inside your dough and these hard pieces/chunks of butter are pooling out. Before any point where you are rolling the dough or shaping the laminated dough, let it sit on the counter until the butter has slightly softened and isn’t hard and chunky underneath the layers. You’ll have an easier time laminating the dough and the butter shouldn’t pool out as much. You can also try lowering your oven temperature by 25 degrees F to help ensure the croissants bake a little more evenly, too.
I’m worried that the plastic wrap will stick to the dough/shaped croissants. Do you recommend spraying the plastic wrap with Pam?
Hi Jennifer, I’ve never had that problem before. You can grease the plastic warp if you’d like but again– it’s never stuck to my dough before.
I’m working on this recipe now but am wanting to get at least 20-24 croissants out of it rather than 16 (using them for a baby shower!). After laminating, do you think I could roll it out to a 12×20 rectangle and cut it one more time across to get four more croissants? Just wondering if that change in thickness would cause any huge issues?
Hi Alyssa, that should be fine but I haven’t personally tested it. The croissants will be smaller and may not take quite as long to bake in the oven.
Not a fan of whipping butter before laminating it. My butter crumbled into pieces inside the dough after the first fold.
Now I don’t know whether it’s salvageable or should I dump the whole thing.
I had much easier time just cutting cold butter following another recipe.
★★★
I did it! Best lamination I’ve ever gotten. Excellent instructions and fail proof recipe. Thank you! The only adjustment I will make next time is to use salted butter and to remember the egg wash. 🙂
★★★★★
Hi, my name is Jasper. I’m 15 year old and I really enjoy baking and cooking. I made these croissants and they were delicious! I made a few mistakes because they were my very first time but they turned out great anyway. I have a few questions because I like learning about techniques in baking. Why do you add flour to the butter later in this recipe? Most recipes I just use plain butter for the butter layer. My second question is, why do you cut a small slit at the wide end of the triangle? Thanks.
★★★★★
Hi Jasper, We are so happy you enjoyed the croissants! We beat the butter with flour so it has some stability. Cutting the end of the triangle helps the dough to maintain the classic crescent shape.
Thanks for the awesome recipe, Sally! I froze about half the dough for a couple months after step 10. It’s mostly defrosted in the refrigerator now and the dough is pretty wet. Presumably I didn’t cover it tightly enough in the freezer. Do you think it will be ok patting the dough down with a paper towel and generously flouring the working surface when rolling out to shape? Or do you have any other tips or watch outs? Thanks!
Hi Megan, I have a feeling the dough will be just fine. Pat it as dry as you can before you begin working with it and yes, use lots of extra flour when shaping too. Both will help!
Hi Sally,
I’m planning on making your croissant recipe for the weekend and I have a small question about step 13. I would like to try your method of placing the risen dough into the fridge over night after shaping and proof on the counter so I can just bake in the morning to cut some prep time. I read somewhere that someone has done that with a similar pastry recipe and the dough became super sticky and lost it’s shape. Any thoughts on how to avoid that?
Thank you! 🙂
These are really good! Obviously a time commitment but we enjoyed making them as a weekend project. Even my young son could help. Scrumptious croissants, it was worth it. Thanks for posting the recipe! – Audrey
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This is the first recipe of yours I tried and my first time making croissants! I had a lot of fun making them and even started my 2nd batch during the lamination process of the 1st batch. They’re easier than you think, just take awhile! I can’t wait to try the chocolate version. Thanks for the video tutorial too. IT was really helpful.
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